Thomson added that content providers would soon fight back, a threat that prompted Michael Wolff, editor of aggregator Newser.com, to fire back on his site that Thomson's "old media backlash was a day late and a dollar short."

Wolff -- the author of a biography of News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch -- went on to taunt the company for overpaying for the Journal.

"That deal cost Murdoch $5.6 billion in cash and another $30 billion in share price value, making it the most expensive blunder of Murdoch's career," he wrote. "So Thompson is full of sour grapes. He clawed his way to the top of the financial news pyramid, only to find it ready to turn to dust."